Graduate Student - Masters

Biology

New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, NM)

Maria Castillo

Testing C3 Gene Homology in E. sepiolid Squids.

As a graduate student at New Mexico State University, I have been working under Dr. Maria Castillo’s lab investigating immune interactions in the beneficial symbiosis between the Euprymna sepiolid squid and Vibrio fischeri. Many scientists find this model quite intriguing, as there is not much known about the immune components that are engaged in identifying bacterial cells in this system. Past research with Euprymna scolopes has shown that complement component 3 (C3) molecule is being expressed within the mollusk, specifically in the epithelial cells. C3 partakes in the complement system, and it is known to interact with surface elements of bacterial cells. Since E. tasmanica shares many similarities with E. scolopes, we decided to test if C3 is present on both species, and see if both DNA sequences are homologous. For this purpose, primers specific for C3 on E. scolopes were tested in RT-PCR reaction trials in order to amplify an analogous sequence from E. tasmanica cDNA. We were able to confirm the presence of C3 in E. tasmanica, and we are now in the verge of completing the whole sequence which will serve as basis in comparative studies entailing both species in the future.